Photo Albums

Noteworthy Photography

Burning Flags PressThe website of Glen E. Friedman. Renowned for both his work with musicians like Fugazi, Minor Threat, Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys, Slayer (and many, many more) as well as his groundbreaking documentation of the burgeoning skateboard phenomenon in the late `70's, Glen has been privvy to (and has summarily captured on film) some of the coolest stuff ever. He's also an incredibly insightful and nice guy to boot.

SoHo Blues - Photography by Allan TannenbaumAllan Tannenbaum is a local photographer who has been everywhere and shot everything, from members of Blondie hanging out at the Mudd Club through the collapsing towers of the World Trade Center on September 11th. You could spend hours on this site, and I have.

Robert Otter PhotographsAmazing vintage photographs of New York City, specifically my own neighborhood, Greenwich Village.

Big Laughs

The Weblog of Spumco's John K.The weblog of cartoonist John Kricfalusi, crazed mind and frantic pencil behind the original "Ren & Stimpy," as well as "The Goddamn George Liquor Show." Surreal, unapologetic, uncompromising genius.

June 07, 2018

New Pedantic: The Quest to Correct London Calling

As has been long and laboriously established, I am something of an insufferable fanboy for a lot of silly pop-culture things. I revel in minutia, seek out the furthest flung iterations, feverishly scrutinize the incidentals and celebrate the accompanying ephemera. I have still-sealed copies of certain cassettes (!!!) and multiple copies of certain albums based solely on miniscule cover-art differences and track-listing. In some instances, I refuse to part with obsolete versions of certain media despite being no longer able to play them on anything. Yeah, I’m that guy. Sorry.

A big part of this particular syndrome, of course, is the giddy ability to chime into certain conversations to deliver roundly unsolicited corrections (usually prefaced with the cloying adverb, Actually….). In my circles, this sort of irritating behavior involves predominantly music, cinema and New York City trivia, but you’re likely to find equally noxious pedants in virtually every field of human interest. From sports to the stock market and bird-watching to trainspotting, there is doubtlessly a variant of precious nerd, geek or knowitall to suit every subject. I’m sure you know a few.

As I expounded on here, however, I try to stay full aware of these tendencies and keep them more or less in check. This blog, for example, has become instrumental in exercising these demons, as it’s better to use this platform to rant about this type of idiotic bullshit than anywhere else. By doing it here, and keeping it all in perspective, I try to keep it at least amusing and informative, and not misguided and obsessive.

Enter Dave Marin.

As profiled recently in the Wall Street Journal, Marin is a 59-year-old retired salesman from Pleasantville, NY (erstwhile home of Ace Frehley) who is singularly obsessed with an alleged inaccuracy on the sleeve of the Clash’s celebrated third album, London Calling. He is steadfastly devoted to correcting this perceived mistake. “It’s my life goal,” he remarks. Incidentally – and that’s the perfect adverb to start this next sentence, as the subject is the quintessence of incidental -– the correction in question involves the cited date of the album’s iconic cover photo. I’ll let you read the whole article -– which really belongs in The Onion -- but Marin contends that the photo, shot by Pennie Smith at the Palladium on East 14th Street, was taken the day before the notes of the sleeve would suggest. He takes this position because he says he was there and still has the ticket stub.

Now, again, I am the fucking last person in the world who should be ridiculing this guy, but I just find this whole story so tragic. I mean, let’s say he manages to achieve his, once again, “life goal,” and get it officially corrected, resulting in any and all future, tactile re-issues –- should they ever happen -– reflecting his scrupulous amendment. Where does he go from there? I can hear him now. “At last, I can finally sleep at night, now that this great inaccuracty has been righted. Many nights have I tossed and turned, thinking that thousands upon thousands of oblivious Clash-fans were going about their lives blithely believing that Paul Simonon’s bass felt the unrelenting wrath of the Palladium floor on the 21st, when it was actually on the 20th! Those poor, deluded fools!”

It's not even that much of a quibble. I mean, if you’re going to get all super-dupe pedantic about something, at least make it something more substantial than a calendar error. That’s just fucking dull.

That did not stop him from making a video about it…

The thing is, he’s very possibly -– if not probably -- correct in his assertion. But why can’t he just have fun with it?

Speaking of having fun with it, my friend Ned on Facebook suggesting mass knockoff of Marin’s pose. I could not resist, making due with my colleague Peter’s vintage 3D copy of the Stoness’ Satanic Majesties Request.

Thanks for picking up on the WSJ article. I’m a fan of your site (we’ve connected in the past over some photos and locations). Don’t worry I have not been all consumed by my Clash Smash quest. The “life’s goal” is obviously a bit overblown. I’ll admit I do need more hobbies. And I think in the 4 years since I created the YouTube video I’ve come to realize, especially in this day and age, that FACTS ARE IMPORTANT. Facts are, well, FACTS! Sure, the date doesn’t really matter but the exercise was fun and it’s interesting to discover just what’s available on line. Am I any more looney than people that remember the pitch count of a particular hit during a particular at bat during a baseball game 70 years ago (listen to WFAN any day to hear those recited) or those that care about vintages of wines and differences in tastes?! Who cares!!!!! But facts shouldn’t be argued-facts are facts. And today they’re more important than ever. Be Best. Dave